Chapter 87: The Wrong Person

Astrid

I woke before my alarm, and for a few seconds didn’t remember why. Then I saw the folded note on the bedside table.

Stay away from Eliza Bane.

I’d read it enough times the words should have stopped meaning anything. They hadn’t. I sat up, morning light creeping through the curtains, everything looking perfectly normal. That was what bothered me most. Yesterday my biggest problem had been the sabotage. Now someone knew exactly where I’d been, who I’d been meeting with.

I considered telling Ivy, imagined her insisting I take it straight to Reed and Xander, Reed investigating methodically, Xander threatening someone before breakfast. I almost smiled. Then didn’t.

I hid the note inside a book instead. Not because I didn’t trust them. I just didn’t know yet what it meant. Genuine warning, or something designed to make me distrust Eliza before I had any reason to.

Until I knew which, I kept it to myself.

The hallways buzzed with whispers when I got to the academy. "Someone had to have helped them." "My sister said the other academy has witches." "Why would Aldrich even bring them here?"

Ivy noticed my expression immediately. "Why do you look like you haven’t slept?"

"Good morning to you too."

"What happened now?"

I nearly told her, until I saw Eliza down the hallway and the note flashed through my mind. "Nothing."

"You are a terrible liar."

"Apparently."

I found Reed and Xander outside a classroom, Estelle already there, standing close to Xander, laughing about something from years ago.

"You cried," Estelle said.

"I was six," Xander said.

"You both cried," Reed added without looking up from his book.

"Reed!" Estelle gasped. Xander pointed at his brother in betrayal.

Estelle noticed me first, brightening. "Good morning, Astrid."

"Morning," I said.

"You look tired," she said, and I stiffened. Was she fishing?

"Didn’t sleep well," I said.

Xander leaned toward me. "She’s been like this all morning. Suspicious. You’ve looked at Estelle four times since you got here."

"I have not."

"Five," he said.

"Leave her alone," Reed said.

"I don’t mind," Estelle said sweetly. "You can look at me."

The bell saved me from answering.

As we walked to class, Reed’s fingers brushed mine, then took my hand entirely. Warmth moved through the bond. Xander bumped my shoulder. "Don’t get too comfortable."

"Why?"

"You’re in the middle of us."

"That’s because you both walked beside me."

"Exactly."

I laughed, and for a few seconds forgot everything, the warning, the sabotage, Eliza. I felt warm. Safe.

Then the assembly bell rang, and the feeling drained out fast.

Aldrich stood before a packed hall and explained that the challenge materials had been altered before students entered the forest, accessed using an authorized academy pass. Whispers spread instantly.

"The authorization was registered under one of the transferred students," he said.

The room erupted. "I knew it," someone muttered. Josh turned sharply. Eliza went completely still. Estelle sat a few rows away, brows drawn together, looking genuinely surprised.

Or very good at appearing that way.

Aldrich cautioned against jumping to conclusions before dismissing us, though the damage had already been done, the divide between the two student bodies visibly worse.

I got up immediately.

"Where are you going?" Reed asked, catching my wrist.

"To them."

He released me. "Don’t disappear."

"I’m going twenty feet away."

"That’s how it starts," Xander said.

I found Josh already talking to Eliza, furious in that quiet way that felt more serious than shouting.

"So that’s it? One pass and suddenly we’re all criminals again?"

"Calm down," Eliza said.

"I am calm." A pause. "Fine. Working on it."

Criston, focused elsewhere, asked, "Who had access? Transferred students with authorized passes. There can’t be many."

Eliza’s expression shifted slightly.

"What?" I asked.

Criston looked at her. "You tell us."

The name came out flat. "Eliza Bane."

Silence. Eliza’s confusion turned to fear.

"That’s impossible. I don’t have an academy pass. Just my student identification."

"Then why does Moonshade have an authorization registered under your name?" Criston asked.

She had no answer.

My hand moved to my pocket, fingers closing around the note. Suddenly it felt less like protection and more like preparation, like someone had wanted me suspicious of her before this even surfaced.

Josh and Criston kept talking, Eliza denying, Criston unconvinced. I stayed quiet, the note pressing against my palm.

I could show them. Put it on the table right now.

Something stopped me. What if that was exactly what whoever sent it wanted?

"You think I did this," Eliza said quietly.

"No," Josh said immediately.

Criston said nothing.

"I don’t know," I said finally.

Everyone looked at me. "I don’t know if you’re innocent. But I don’t know if you’re guilty either." I took my hand out of my pocket, note still hidden. "And I’m tired of everyone in this academy deciding who did something before they have proof."

"We find out who registered the pass," I said.

Eliza’s expression shifted, something between disbelief and surprise. "Why would you help me?"

"Because apparently nobody here is giving me enough information to decide whether I should trust anyone."

Josh laughed softly. Criston almost smiled.

Something in Eliza softened, small but real.

Criston found us again later, more serious than before.

"What?" Josh asked.

He looked between Eliza and me. "The pass wasn’t only used before the challenge. It was used again."

"When?" Josh asked.

Criston looked directly at me. "Last night."

Everything in me went cold. Last night. After our meeting. After Eliza left. After I’d stayed behind and someone had slid the note beneath the classroom door.

"Where?" I asked.

He hesitated, expression grim. "Outside the classroom."

I stopped breathing for a moment. The others looked at me, but I was staring at Criston, understanding all at once.

Someone hadn’t just known about our meeting. Someone had been close enough to leave that warning, close enough to watch us the entire time.

And they’d done it using Eliza’s identity.

I looked at her. She looked as shaken as I felt.

The note pressed against my pocket, and one thought refused to let go of me.

Someone wanted me afraid of her.